The IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) 802.11ac wireless computer networking standard allows, among other things, wider radio frequency (RF) bandwidth, up to 160 MHz, at frequencies below six GHz (referred to as the five (5) GHz band). As with any frequency spectrum, the 5 GHz band will become increasingly more crowded because it includes a limited amount of frequencies that have to be shared by a growing number of users, devices, and applications. Generally speaking, there exists only a finite amount of spectrum in the 5 GHZ band, and an increasing number of users are going to want to consume it.
Furthermore, at times, certain portions of the 5 GHz band may be unavailable due to local interference that exists in nature (e.g., atmospheric disturbances) or comes from devices that are not RF sources (e.g., power lines). The presence of radar can also reduce the probability of operating in a contiguous 160 MHz bandwidth because the Federal Communications Commission requires a channel to be vacated if radar is detected. Consequently, within the 5 GHz band, there may be times at which a transmitter cannot detect an available contiguous 160 MHz spectrum.
Thus, while the capability exists to utilize bandwidths up to 160 MHz, that amount of bandwidth may not always be available.